Maruti expects sales revenue to grow 25%

“The demand has been very good so far. In the first three quarters,our income grew very strongly. For this quarter,we will have to see February and March,but it will be more or less the same. Our sales revenue will obviously grow over 25 per cent this fiscal,” Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chief Financial Officer Ajay Seth said.

MSI had reported a total revenue of Rs 30,119.77 crore for 2009-10. In the first nine months of this fiscal,it posted a jump of 26.33 per cent in its revenue to Rs 27,310.35 crore from Rs 21,617.65 crore in the year-ago period.

When asked about the company’s expectation from 2011-12,Seth said: “The industry has projected a volume growth of 12-14 per cent in passenger vehicles segment. Our performance will be in-line with that of the industry.”

The sales of passenger vehicles by the company in the April-December period has grown by 26.91 per cent to 9,27,665 units as against 7,30,943 units.

He,however,declined to give any projection for MSI’s revenue growth during the next fiscal.

“We will have to consider some factors in next fiscal such as a possible excise duty hike in the Budget,liquidity condition,interest rates’ movements and rising commodity prices,” he added.

Seth said commodity prices are still very high and are putting pressure on margins.

At present,MSI,which is 54.2 per cent owned by Suzuki,has an annual capacity of 8.5 lakh units at its Gurgaon plant,while Manesar can produce 3.5 lakh units annually.

The company had announced an investment of over Rs 3,625 crore to set up two new plants with 2.5 lakh annual capacities each inside the Manesar facility.

The carmaker had said it ramped up production by about 10 per cent to over 1.1 lakh units every month from October last year,taking its total annual output to about 14 lakh units in 2011-12.